Fallout's Creator Confirmed Whether The TV Series Removed New Vegas From Canon
The "Fallout" finale has a huge Season 2 tease in the shape of New Vegas, where Overseer Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) flees after hijacking a suit of power armor. However, since "Fallout" Season 1 reveals that the iconic franchise location, Shady Sands, is essentially a crater courtesy of the very same Hank, fans have been worried about the show tinkering with the video game series' established timeline and locations — thus potentially wiping "Fallout: New Vegas" from canon. Fortunately, Bethesda Game Studios' studio design director Emil Pagliarulo has confirmed that the game is still very much a part of the official series, telling X (formerly Twitter) users, "Of course it is. We've never suggested otherwise."
The confirmation is good to have since the show has ample potential for "New Vegas" erasure. The live-action "Fallout" takes place in the year 2296 — the furthest in the future the franchise has visited yet, and 15 years after the events of "New Vegas." The problem is that "Fallout" Season 1, Episode 6, "The Trap," reveals that Hank bombed Shady Sands to oblivion in 2277, which is three years before the 2281 plot of "Fallout: New Vegas."
This effectively reduces the show's version of the New California Republic circa 2277 to a handful of scrawny survivors led by Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury). In the games, the faction is near the height of its powers that particular year, fighting Caesar's Legion at the First Battle of Hoover Dam. It's good to know that Bethesda still considers "New Vegas" canon, but the timeline seems like it'll need some tinkering to fit all the events in without contradictions.
How can the Fallout show fix the timeline?
"Fallout" is blowing everyone away, with the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic show making fans think wistfully of even more video games that deserve movie or TV adaptations. However, after "Fallout" Season 2 was officially announced, the eyes are now on Bethesda and Amazon Prime when it comes to how New Vegas and its live-action history are presented.
Perhaps the easiest tweak would be to explain that the New California Republic that's part of the events in "Fallout: New Vegas" is a different NCR branch from the one in Los Angeles. After all, there are nearly 300 miles between Hoover Dam and Los Angeles — more than space enough to count as a vast distance, especially in the post-apocalyptic setting of "Fallout."
This way, the NCR in "Fallout: New Vegas" could operate independently from the show's Shady Sands-based one, and the people in the L.A. area of the Wasteland might be none the wiser about the Mojave area NCR's survival. It's also possible that Season 2 simply opts to mess with the timeline a bit, moving dates around to avoid confusion. Of course, there could also be other, wilder solutions to the dilemma that the sophomore season may end up revealing in due time.